Winning games with a Tau army has never been easy, especially not in a competitive environment and especially that now in 5th edition, due to all the fancy deployment types, you're highly likely to be charged before you can get a your necessary two turns of firepower off.

But if there's one thing that always makes your opponents think twice, it's the humble railgun.

Strength 10, AP1, range 72"
Whoever came up with the railgun clearly wasn't satisfied with their lascannons. In many aspects, it's the biggest gun in the game and makes any opponent think twice about forking out 250pts on a pimped out landraider for their commander to cruise around in.

Two units in the regular Tau army can take railguns and that's the Tau Hammerhead tank and the Tau Broadside Battlesuits.

Recently I've lost faith in the Hammerhead due to the simple fact that you only get one shot with the railgun. This is fine for firing the submunition round, becausse you'r targeting troops and you're bound to hit something. But for the 'solid slug' as I like to call it, I seem to always roll a 1, meaning that markerlights do little to forgive the inaccuracy of this weapon.

However, on a Tau Broadside battery, the railgun becomes a high feared weapon! I've developed a new fondness for Tau Broadside Battlesuits under the 5th edition rules who now seem to stand out in the open, absorbing heavy portions of fire thanks to their 2+ abundance of shield drones while striking back at any threat with their railguns or smart missile systems.

The beauty of the Tau Broadsides are their twin linked railguns and while they may only be hitting on 4+ (although I like to boost them with a markerlight when possible), the reroll almost guarantees that they will score a hit or two on their targets.

Luke is currently running two squads of 2 Tau Broadsides with the Slow and Purposeful upgrade, while one of them has been upgraded to a leader with bonding knife and two shield drones. It's the standard config for Tau Broadside battlesuits, but as I'm thinking of fielding a Skyray in the 3rd heavy slot instead of a Hammerhead, I may try a squad of 3 Broadsides. Or For maximum survivability, 3 broadsides, each with 2 shield drones. Or perhaps the humble Tau Hammerhead has had its day?

Either way, I need to get some more games in.

It won't be long until Carnage 2008 at the end of March and I still have new Forgeworld Broadside Battlesuits to paint.

About Warhammer Tau

Warhammer Tau is a group of wargamers who feel that they have a little something different to offer other Tau Empire, Kroot, and allied players... even if it's just a starting point for discussion! Our goal is to produce at least one article per week to inform and encourage the Tau and Warhammer gamer community. For the Greater Good, of course!